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Why Is Cannabis Stronger Today Than A Few Decades Ago?

Imported kilo bricks of indiscriminate immature and seeded cannabis have been replaced by boutique grown high quality sinsemilla. What has changed in the past 30-50 years?

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27 Jan 2017

STONED NOT STONED

After a recent eye bleeding session with a friend. Thanks to a primo resinous purple indica. Some questions arose. As questions will.

Tune in, turn on, drop out, echoes up through the decades from the stoners of the seventies. Just how turned on and tuned in were they? How stoned were the hippies of the sixties and seventies really? Just how purple was Jimi's Purple Haze?

Samples tested by the NCNPR at the University of Mississippi (Natural Centre for Natural Projects Research) from historical remnants of the time have proven to be 57-67% less potent than today. In this case potency is measured by the amount of psychoactive substances present.

Five percent THC certainly would not rate against the most average contemporary weed when eighteen percent THC is common. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen as the psycho-social experiment is unfolding before our eyes.

HISTORICALLY

Unseeded cannabis flowers as well as cannabis seeds have been found on the mummified remains of peoples from most countries of the world. Sometimes the remains are thousands of years old.

Humans have had a long relationship with the cannabis plant. Contemporary marijuana growers have rediscovered the folkloric knowledge that cannabis can be manipulated to suit different purposes. Medicine, fun, entheogen and industry.

In the age of prohibition cannabis has generally been imported into western nations. Usually as compressed blocks of indiscriminately stripped plants or compressed hashish. The only sinsemilla generally being from infertile females. Males weren't removed and crops were often harvested very early compared to today's standards.

This cannabis was certainly not the fully matured sinsemilla in demand today. For the same reason nor were the hashes and resins high in psycho-actives.

STRENGTH AND ACCESS

Access to primo weed is what has really changed. To give some perspective to marijuana being stronger today one must consider a number of things.

If you landed modern day growing knowledge on some cat from the sixties he would produce some excellent cannabis from his smuggled Colombian bag seeds.

Neville's Haze is one step removed from a landrace and existed in the late seventies. Skunk and Kush have been around since the mid eighties. To this day these strains are some of the fundamental breeding stocks of contemporary cannabis.

Indoor growing under high discharge lighting has been forever expanding since the mid eighties. Think Jorge Cervantes circa '86 or the cult-like infamy of Amsterdam.

Uber weed has always been around, but only as a boutique product. Never on a scale to service global demand. Sinsemilla was a secret and was kept to family. Stupid greedy gringos got field grown shwag.

By the early nineties the general public had attained an educated palate and was demanding high quality sinsemilla. Slowly the whole world lifted its growing game.

There was no particular breakthrough. Several things occurred simultaneously over the decades in an organic feedback loop. Today cannabis connoisseurs enjoy the best marijuana to ever have existed.

INDOOR GROW BOOM

From the late eighties onwards a grow your own indoor cannabis phenomena happened globally. Indoor grow setups became more affordable and readily available.

Indoor growing under high discharge lights brought attention to detail.

Sinsemilla plants undisturbed by the vagaries of nature and controlled in every aspect revealed aspects of cannabis maturation unknown in the West.

When this rediscovered folkloric knowledge was translated to outdoor growth, weeks were added to the flowering time. Resin like never before was being produced.

INFORMATION KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGY

The explosion of the world wide web, especially since 2000, has seen an explosion in knowledge sharing like never before. Full-blown instructional videos by eminently experienced growers are available at a click. High quality seed, advanced growing hardware and high tech nutrients are obtainable by mail order.

Countries that have cast aside the antiquated yoke of prohibition are leading the way in cannabis husbandry. Flagrant cannabis farms are providing expert conditions where the marijuana plant can express its true growth and beneficial resin producing potential.

Indoors or outdoors the highest quality weed is being produced by everyone.

BREEDING ACCELERATION AND COMPLEXITY.

Four or five grow seasons can be accomplished annually indoors. Growers therefore can manage very complex breeding programs. As an example, shortening the amount of time it would take to stabilize a new marijuana strain. What may take five years outdoors can be done in one year indoors.

It would not be far fetched to say that some strains we enjoy today would not be around for another forty years if outdoors was the only growing choice. A random mutant strain like Cheese would most certainly have gone unnoticed in an outdoor crop.

DEDICATED STRAIN HUNTING

Where ganja land races exist. Intrepid cannabis breeders have been there to find the best looking, smelling and most vigorous growing local weed. These are then propagated and grown using modern techniques. Eventually being presented to the public as new strains.

MATURITY

The definition of acceptably matured cannabis flowers changed significantly as educated consumers began demanding higher quality weed. A well-established underground of hobby growers were more than happy to satisfy their demand.

The days of kilo bricks of super dry compressed wild grown dope of indiscriminate lineage, smuggled from Mexico in the fake floor of a combi van are well and truly over.

There exists a smorgasbord of recreational and pharmaceutically customizable cannabis and cannabis extracts in the world today.

One thing is sure the phrase "too much seed and stalk" has never crossed the lips of any connected cannabis user since 1995.

This is a random link to a funny skit by the comedian louis ck about modern cannabis strength. Please feel free to link it how you please or dump it.